Vanity Fair articles from February 2008

Vanity Fair archives from February 2008

Stick Man.(Sean Avery of New York Rangers)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Byline: Jonathan Kelly Sean Avery was born to play the bad guy. Which may be why the New York Rangers' diminutive forward (he's five ten-"in skates," he jokes) is having so much fun. Voted the most hated player in the N.H.L. by his...

A Vast Right-Wing Hypocrisy; Richard Mellon Scaife, billionaire bankroller of conservative crusades, spent heavily to expose Bill Clinton's "Troopergate" misbehavior.(Interview)
February 1, 2008... Byline: Michael Joseph Gross Over many years, in the five households the couple shared, the wife hired scores of servants to help take care of her rich husband. Then, in 2005, she hired someone to tail him. Margaret Ritchie Rhea Battle...

Malin Akerman.(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Byline: Krista Smith AGE: 29. PROVENANCE: Born in Stockholm, raised in Toronto. YOU MIGHT REMEMBER HER AS... the breezy young beauty who stole Lisa Kudrow's thunder in the 2005 HBO series The Comeback. And this past summer, she was the...

The Vanities Dare.(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... ONE-POINT DARES 1. In your workplace, distribute Necco Sweethearts candies custom-inscribed MITT '08. 2. Tell your girlfriend that you've planned a romantic night in-and upon her arrival, start up a DVD marathon of Judy at Carnegie...

Keys to the Kingdom; Between them, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have made 13 of the 100 top-grossing movies of all time.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Jim Windolf When we last saw him, nearly 19 years ago, everybody's favorite archaeologist was literally riding off into the sunset after having found the Holy Grail. This seemed as though it had to be the end of the adventure...

A Face in the Crowd; In a Britain under threat from homegrown Islamic radicals, and trading its civil liberties for increased security, an illegal Algerian immigrant named Mouloud Sihali became the living face of domestic terrorism.
February 1, 2008... Byline: William Langewiesche POISON TERROR: DESPERATE MANHUNT -London Evening Standard. A Loose Tongue. On December 31, 2002, the Algerian intelligence service flashed an urgent report to its British counterparts warning of an...

Cat Call.(The Women)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Byline: Amy Fine Collins In the 1930s, Clare Boothe Luce, Vanity Fair's ambitious managing editor, had an epiphany in the powder room of a nightclub. Why not write a poison-pen play about the backstabbing, spoiled New York socialites whose...

Palace Intrigues; There hasn't been a dull moment in London, what with Brad and Angelina at Claridge's, Nigel Dempster's memorial, the McCartney-Mills divorce proceedings, and not one but two huge royal dramas being played out.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Dominick Dunne I've been spending a lot of time in London lately, and it's a perfect place to be, as it's going through good times. It's as expensive as hell, the dollar stinks, but the parties are nightly, and restaurants are...

Once Upon a Time in Australia.(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Byline: Jonathan Kelly Australia is an unlikely setting for a film staged against the backdrop of the Second World War, which may be why director Baz Luhrmann set his epic fourth film there. For a moment in the winter of 1941-42, it looked...

A Royal Family Affair; At 16, duty-free-shopping heiress Marie-Chantal Miller was working for Andy Warhol.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Bob Colacello His father is the former King of Greece. Her father is the former king of duty-free shopping. He has his own hedge fund, investing money for, among others, his extended family, which includes the reigning monarchs of...

Hurly Birley; Supreme arbiter of aristocratic London nightlife, Mark Birley poured all his charm, generosity, and taste into his portfolio of clubs, including the fabled Annabel's, until he abruptly sold them right before his death, last August.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Maureen Orth In his obituaries, last August, it appeared that Mark Birley, the London club owner who died at the age of 77, might go down in history as the man who first wrapped muslin around lemon halves to prevent them from...

Karl Rove; A principal architect of the disastrous presidency of George W. Bush, Karl Rove, 57, has charted a long course from the internship he landed with the Republican Party in Utah almost four decades ago.(Interview)
February 1, 2008... What is your current state of mind? Energized, challenged, ready. What is your greatest extravagance? Too many books. What is your greatest fear? Living foolishly above my means and running out of money. What is the...

Office Politics.(on Karl Rove and George W. Bush's administration)
February 1, 2008... Byline: Graydon Carter Those of you who read magazines back to front, as I do, will already have noticed that the Proust Questionnaire red carpet has been rolled out this month for an unlikely subject: Karl Rove. And in characteristic...

The Price of Our President.(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2008... As a student with a job who is getting ready to go to college, I am being forced into a world where taxes are too high, the price of gas is outrageous, and paying for higher education is going to cost not only my arms and legs, but, it seems,...

Rags to Riches.(Bernard and Doris)(Television program review)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Premiering on HBO on February 9, Bernard and Doris tells the tale of the improbable but true relationship between the world's wealthiest poor little rich girl, tobacco billionairess Doris Duke, and Bernard Lafferty, the flamboyant, alcoholic...

Private Lives.(Celia Birtwell)
February 1, 2008... Byline: Lisa Eisner If Celia Birtwell's life were a movie, it would unfold like a Harold Robbins mini-series. Married to the famous English designer Ossie Clark, Celia designed all the whimsical textile prints that Ossie would turn into...

The Week Chicago Died.(Chicago 10)(Movie review)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Byline: Bruce Handy If you want to know what it felt like to live through 1968, America's annus horribilis, this is the place to start. Chicago 10 opens with a hollow-eyed, dead-faced Lyndon Johnson announcing another call-up of soldiers...

Hot Type.(booklist)
February 1, 2008... Byline: Elissa Schappell LIVING IN AMERICA: Michael Shnayerson's Coal River (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) is a burning indictment of the coal companies blasting the West Virginia mountain ranges, and a glowing tribute to the good citizens of...

MAPPING HAPPINESS.(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Byline: Elissa Schappell Disgruntled by feeling "the unhappiness of not being happy," NPR correspondent Eric Weiner set out to map The Geography of Bliss (Twelve). With wisdom gleaned from "the self-help industrial complex" as his compass,...

A Novel Haven.(Square Books)
February 1, 2008... Byline: Doug Stumpf The first thing to know about Square Books, in Oxford, Mississippi, is that it's anything but square. It is on the square, however-the one framing the beautiful Lafayette County Courthouse, built in 1840, burned down in...

NEW YORK.(Chopard Boutique opening)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... What La Grenouille's dining room sparkled with glamour as guests tucked into red banquettes for an intimate dinner following the opening of the New York International Flagship Chopard Boutique. Who Mark Cornell, Jim Kelly, Andy...

SIMI VALLEY, CALIFORNIA.
February 1, 2008... What An illustrious group gathers for the opening of "Nancy Reagan-A First Lady's Style," a year-long exhibition at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum celebrating the former First Lady. Who Marvin Hamlisch, Robert Loggia, Fred...

How Bush Stacks Up; Like Rorschach tests, a growing stack of Bush books reveals very different presidents-Evangelical Bush, Frat-Boy Bush, Weepy Bush-as authors try to explain his failure.(George W. Bush)
February 1, 2008... Byline: James Wolcott Most people fear death. It's something they'd prefer to skip, if possible, or at least put off to a later date. President George W. Bush entertains a more laid-back, come-what-may attitude toward the big D, and not, I...